


Eyes Can be so Cruel

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: Yuma is a Girl [51]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Canon Divergence, Gender or Sex Swap, Labyrinth References, Other, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-14 03:51:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14127471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: Yuma’s heart is doing backflips in her chest. Rio and Ryoga were here, but they left? Even though they knew full well that Yuma would be looking for them? Didn’t they care enough to know if Astral was okay? She’s going to kill them when she finds them.





	Eyes Can be so Cruel

The reunion is something else. Michael, Thomas, Cathy, Tetsuo, Takashi, and Tokunosuke can all see Astral now. They cry, they take his hands, they hug him and sob all over him (or at least Tokunosuke does), and they do the same to Yuma. But they quickly realize that someone is missing.

“Where’s Rio and Ryoga?” Cathy asks.

Kotori is the one who explains. “We were watching the transporter to see if Yuma was coming back, but suddenly someone grabbed me from behind. It was Durbe, and he said…he said he would only let me go if Ryoga and Rio went with him.” She buries her face in her hands and sobs. “I tried to be brave, I told them not to, I would be okay, but my voice was shaking and I was so scared…”

“It’s not your fault,” Yuma assures her. “My pigheaded boyfriend and Rio would have done it even if you had cussed your head off at Durbe.” She looks around Heartland. “The bigger question is, what the fuck is happening here?” The sky is red, there’s beams of light shooting up from the ground, and several people nearby seem to be channeling a zombie apocalypse movie—but rather than calling for brains, they’re muttering ‘all for Barian world.’

Thomas answers, “Numbers have been falling from the sky and we think Barian world is trying to absorb our world.”

Yuma throws her hands up. “HONESTLY! I leave this place for…how long has it been?”

“Like two days,” Tetsuo says.

“TWO DAYS!” Yuma shouts, “And everything goes to shit!”

Thomas laughs. “Oh Yuma, I have been looking forward to your return. I missed your sense of humor.”

“What do you mean, ‘missed’?” Yuma snaps, “Not like I showed you much of my humor. And by the way, when did you get here?”

“He’s been keeping us from going crazy,” Cathy says. “He’s actually been very helpful.”

“Wonders never cease,” Yuma says. “Okay, let’s get down to business. You guys look out for Ryoga and Rio, I gotta go make sure my sister and grandma are okay.” She takes off running for her house, and as she goes past places she’s seen every day of her life, she can’t help but notice how different everything looks when it’s the end of the world. The same streets she’s walked her whole life no longer feel like home, and it seems to take longer than usual for her to run the same distance.

Yuma finally bursts into her house, relieved that it’s still standing. “Guys I’m home!” She screams.

Something breaks in the kitchen. “Yuma, I swear to god!” Akari screams. She runs into the foyer, and skids to a halt, her mouth wide open. “Wh-who…is that Astral?!”

Yuma looks over her shoulder, where Astral is floating. “You can see him?!” She gasps.

Akari covers her mouth. “Holy cow,” she whispers. “He’s…oh my god.”

Astral holds out his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Akari reaches for him, but she can’t touch him.

“Weird,” Yuma says.

Grandma can see Astral too, but also can’t touch him. She offers to pour some tea, but Yuma declines.

“Astral and I kinda have to stop the end of the world out there,” She says. “I was just making sure you guys are okay. Oh by the way, have you seen Ryoga and Rio?”

“Yeah,” Akari says. “They left like, twenty minutes ago.”

Yuma almost chokes on air. “Are you sure? Twenty minutes?!”

“Yup,” Akari says. “Ryoga said to tell you, ‘You remind me of the babe,’ and Rio said to tell you that your boyfriend is a dork.”

Yuma’s heart is doing backflips in her chest. Rio and Ryoga were here, but they left? Even though they knew full well that Yuma would be looking for them? Didn’t they care enough to know if Astral was okay? She’s going to kill them when she finds them.

“Ugh, okay,” Yuma mutters. She dashes upstairs, grabs her backpack full of questionable things, and takes off again.

“Be careful!” Akari yells after her.

While she’s running down the street, Yuma gets a call from Kotori, who informs her that Kite is dueling Heartland’s re-reanimated corpse.

“HOW?!” Yuma screams into the phone.

“I don’t know, but Kite is struggling,” Kotori says worriedly.

Yuma hangs up and looks over at Astral. “You know, when we actually build our Kingdom…wait, did you hear that speech I made?”

“I have vague memories of it,” Astral says. “But I know we are using the Numeron code to build a Kingdom where all are welcome.”

“Good, when we do that we should make ourselves super heroes instead of gods. I feel like a super hero.”

“You are,” Astral says, grinning at her.

Yuma arrives at the river where Kite is dueling. The spectating crowd is on their knees, and Kite is sprawled on the ground.

“What the hell?” Yuma asks, running past her friends, “Why are y’all on the floor?”

“Our bodies just got really heavy,” Cathy groans, “Don’t you feel it?”

Yuma kneels by Kite’s side and heaves him into her lap. “I feel light as a feather,” she says, patting Kite’s cheek. “Wake up Sleeping Beauty, or I might have to kiss you again.”

“AGAIN?!” Tetsuo shouts. “WHAT AGAIN?!”

Kite coughs and chuckles. “What took you so long?” He asks her.

Yuma feels like crying. “Why did you bother dueling him?”

Kite grins. “So you could finish him off, the way you deserve to.”

Yuma manages to smile. “Okay, that’s a good answer.” She hands Kite off to Michael and finally turns to Heartland. “CHRIST IN A HAND BASKET!” She screams, almost falling on her butt.

“What, am I not handsome enough for you?” Heartland asks with a leer. His _skin_ is _slipping_ off of his _face._

Yuma glances at Astral, who looks equally horrified. “That…is not a living thing.”

Yuma duels Heartland, taking over where Kite left off, and she kicks the zombie-man’s reanimated rear into the next century. As his life points drop he screams with rage, but it quickly turns to a scream off horror.

“Hot, it’s hot!” Heartland screams.

Yuma turns to her friends. “Don’t look!” She orders. Most of them do cover their faces, but Kite and the Arclight siblings watch in fascinated horror.

Heartland screams, “Vector-sama!” As his body is engulfed in flames. The fire shoots higher than any normal inferno would, and within the flames Yuma can see a silhouette.

“Don Thousand!” Astral gasps.

“That’s not freaky at all,” Yuma says as Heartland’s screams fade and he’s nothing but a pile of ashes on the sidewalk.

There’s a brief moment of silence, broken when Cathy and Kotori both start sobbing. Yuma goes to them and puts her hands on their shoulders. “There, there,” she says, “That thing wasn’t human, don’t feel sorry for it. Remember, we have bigger things to worry about.”

Kite struggles to his feet, his eyes trained on a spot over Yuma’s shoulder. “What’s that?” He asks.

Yuma turns. There’s a bolt of lightning heading right towards them. “DUCK!” She screams.

They all hit the deck, and Yuma swears that the lightning strikes just feet away from them. Actually, if the explosion of dust that rains down on them is any indication, it did strike feet away from them. Ears ringing, Yuma sits up. She squints through the dust and seven figures begin to take shape on the platform just above them. The hair rises on the back of her neck as she recognizes what, and who, they are.

“Ryoga…Rio?” She gasps. Her mouth has gone dry and she suddenly feels like she’s going to vomit out all of her organs.

Ryoga and Rio are flanked by Durbe, Mizael, Gilag, Alit, and Vector. Her best friends are standing beside Barians. Ryoga is wearing the Barian symbol as a crest around his neck.

“Wh-what’s going on?” Yuma asks. She can feel the shock radiating from her friends.

“I learned something about myself,” Ryoga calls down. “I saw my past. I am Nasch, leader of the Seven Barian Emperors. My sister is Merag, my right hand.”

Yuma feels like she could pass out, but she refuses. She has to know how this happened. “No!” She shouts. “Your name is Ryoga! Rio, you two are my best friends! How can you be standing with…with them?”

“I see I’ve shocked you,” Ryoga says coldly. “Then I’ll show you. Bariarphose!”

“Bariarphose!” The other six echo.

In the flash of light that follows, Yuma reaches into her backpack and pulls out her taser.

When the light fades and seven Barians stand where humans once were, Yuma almost does pass out. She’s seen the other five, but Ryoga and Rio…

Rio is beautiful. White and blue, with pink eyes that shine in her face. Her hair seems to sparkle, her dress looks like it was made from diamonds. She’s like a Queen. And Ryoga…he looks so regal, and strong. He looks like Michelangelo has sculpted him from agate and breathed life into him.

Yuma wants to run. She wants to hide and scream and pray for this to be a dream. But she holds herself up, taser clutched in her hands behind her back. As scary as this is, Ryoga’s message to her rings in her ears. A quote from Labyrinth, the last thing Yuma said to him, Rio, and Kotori before she went to Astral world. That means something to her, and if she’s right…

“This is my true form,” Ryoga says through his mouthless face. “Now, do you believe in me?”

Yuma exhales. “I do believe in you,” she says, theory confirmed.

“Yes, I do,” comes Rio’s voice.

Yuma pulls her arm back and throws the taser at Ryoga. He catches it, and quick as a flash, he aims it at Vector. Vector screams as the shock goes through him, and Ryoga and Rio leap down from the platform.

“SIKE!” Rio screams back at the Barians as she runs to Yuma’s side. Then she laughs, “Oh man, you had me worried for a second there, Yuma!”

“I HAD YOU WORRIED?!” Yuma shrieks, punching Rio’s arm and wincing as it hurts. “Argh, fuck, you had me worried!”

“Sorry,” Ryoga says, jogging to Yuma’s other side.

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!” Durbe screams. “Nasch, I thought you had come to accept what you were! I thought you were coming back to lead your people! You would really choose her, a mere human, over an entire world?!”

“I’m not choosing Yuma over anything,” Ryoga says, moving to stand in front of Yuma. “There was never a choice for me, because no matter what happened in the past I’ve accepted that Yuma is my future. She’s my best friend, but more than that she’s the person I love more than I ever thought possible.”

“Weak,” Vector wheezes. “There’s no such thing as love.”

He’s still connected to the taser. Ryoga shocks him again. “Besides,” Ryoga continues as Vector writhes, “I could never be on the same side as Vector.”

“What about Barian world?” Mizael shouts. “Yuma and Astral will destroy us with the Numeron code. You’re abandoning us to our deaths.”

“Hey, I never said that!” Yuma shouts. “I just finished telling Eliphas that I’m going for diplomacy!”

“She’s a child,” Alit says scornfully.

“Why does everyone say that like it’s supposed to make me stop what I’m doing?” Yuma mutters.

“She has no idea what she’s doing,” Gilag says. “She spouts worthless nonsense.”

“I’M DATING YOUR KING, ASSHAT!” Yuma screams, “THAT MAKES ME YOUR QUEEN! Or, wait…IT WOULD IF WE GOT MARRIED!”

“Totally!” Rio yells, “And she’s going to marry Astral too, so she’ll be Queen of Barian world and Astral world!”

Yuma feels her face heat up. “One world is enough for me. Besides, Astral isn’t a Prince.”

“Actually, I kind of am, now,” Astral says. “That was what it meant when the citizens of Astral world leant me their power.”

“Shit,” Yuma breathes, “So I’ll be Queen of three Kingdoms?! Oh my god, I gotta study politics in college.”

“What’s the third Kingdom?” Rio asks.

“What is happening?” Tetsuo asks.

“Maybe we should go elsewhere,” Kite mutters from the ground.

“Right, first I have something to say!” Yuma shouts. She walks out from behind Ryoga and stares down the Barians. “I want you to know that none of this is your faults! Barian world and Astral world were once the same place, and through misguided attempts at making a better world, Chaos was expelled from Astral world, and Barian world was created. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Your worlds once existed together, and they can again if you just realize that this war you’re fighting, you’re fighting against people who have had nothing to do with this! You don’t need to absorb the Earth for your people to live fulfilling lives, you just have to give diplomacy a shot!”

“She speaks treason! Kill her!” Vector shouts.

“NOT TODAY!” Tokunosuke screams.

Smoke erupts around them, and Yuma grabs anyone she can and hisses “Scatter!”

Somehow they all manage to stick together. Somehow they all manage to get to an underground parking garage. Somehow, Yuma manages to keep it together until she’s slumped against the Arclight’s ridiculous RV, and only then does she give herself over to hysterics.

“Glad you…found…my smoke bombs,” she manages to tell Tokunosuke between sobs.

“I’m still so confused,” Kotori says, looking between Rio and Ryoga. They’re still in Barian forms.

“Do you want us to leave?” Rio asks Yuma gently.

Yuma shakes her head, hands tight over her mouth. She really might be sick if she keeps thinking of Ryoga and Rio this way, though. They look…

Rio’s eyes fill with tears. “Yuma…it’s me,” she says desperately.

Yuma takes several deep breaths. She feels Astral’s hands on her shoulders. “Go to them,” he tells her.

Yuma’s whole body shakes as she steps forward, towards Rio. Rio waits for her to approach, keeping still. Yuma takes her hands off her mouth and instead places them on Rio’s shoulders. Rio is warm, and though her skin is firmer than it was, it doesn’t feel like rock. She touches Rio’s hair—it’s soft and silky, just like it has been since Yuma first braided it for her, back in kindergarten.

A tear slips down Rio’s cheek. That’s how they met, back when they were toddlers. Rio was crying because Ryoga was in a different class, and she wanted to be with him. Yuma went up to her and took her hand.

 _“I like your dress,”_ Yuma had said. _“You look like a Princess.”_

Rio sniffled and said, _“Thank you.”_

Yuma smiled at her. _“My name is Yuma. I like building with blocks. Want to build with me?”_

Now, Yuma takes Rio’s hand and squeezes it. “You look like a princess,” she says.

Rio sobs, and Yuma hugs her. Yes, she still hugs like Rio—tight, hair in Yuma’s face, and as Yuma inhales she even smells Rio’s perfume.

When Rio releases her, she goes to Kotori and Cathy, and they share their own reunion. Yuma turns her attention to Ryoga. He’s been silent as he watched, but his eyes say a thousand things. He’s scared, hopeful, and sad. He feels terrible, but he’s at peace with himself.

“You knew before now, didn’t you?” Yuma asks him, “You knew you were a Barian.” She can’t help but sound accusing.

Ryoga looks away. “I did.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Yuma demands, her voice rising slightly.

“As soon as I accepted it, you lost Astral,” Ryoga says, his voice echoing out of his face. “I just wanted to be there for you. I didn’t want you to…to hate me.”

Yuma shakes her head. “I don’t hate you.”

“You’re afraid of Barians,” Ryoga counters. “You have every right to be, but I don’t want you to look at me like I’m…one of them.”

Yuma is scared. She’s scared of his nails, the points of the armor that seems to grow out of his body, of the way he talks without a mouth. But still…“You told my sister to tell me, and I quote, ‘You remind me of the babe.’”

“What babe?” Ryoga answers automatically.

Yuma laughs and cries at the same time. “It’s you, I know it is,” she sobs. Of course it is, that’s why he told Akari to give her that message. That’s why, when Yuma saw him and Rio standing with the other Barians, she didn’t pass out on the spot.

She goes so close to him that their toes touch, and she cups his face in her hands. His skin is softer there than it was on Rio’s arms. “But how the hell are you supposed to kiss me if you don’t have a mouth?” She asks.

Ryoga closes his eyes. A laugh rumbles from his chest. “Is that what you’re really thinking about?”

Yuma leans in and kisses the space where his mouth would be. It’s strange, but not terrible. She leans back slightly. “What can I say? Kissing is very important to me.”

Ryoga closes his eyes and leans forward until their foreheads touch. “You’re such a nerd,” he says.

Before Yuma can accuse him of being the one who clued her into his true intentions with Labyrinth, a light shoots from the crest on Ryoga’s chest and another one shoots from the Key around Yuma’s neck. The lights collide, and the two of them are blown back. Yuma is out cold before she even hits the ground.

 

* * *

 

_A peaceful Kingdom shattered by war…_

_“Merag, no!” He screams as his sister sacrifices herself to an ancient God…_

_He and Durbe would lead the army to the ends of the Earth if it meant finally destroying Vector and bringing his reign of terror to an end…_

_They pass through wrecked town after wrecked town, anyone who could walk was recruited for the army, and they cared for the sick as best they could, but it was never enough, what kind of King was he?_

_A little girl, with a face like Merag’s…he couldn’t save his sister, but he could save this little girl…she was so young that she didn’t even know her own name. “My mama called me baby,” she sobbed. “I want my mama…”_

_He named her Iris, after the flowers she fell in love with when they finally reached a land that hadn’t been burned to the ground. She called him papa…_

_He battled Vector. He lost…_

_While he had dueled, his army had fought. They had been slaughtered, all of them. And at the edge of the field, he found Iris’ limp body…_

_In the end, he couldn’t save any of them…_

 

* * *

 

Yuma wakes up with tears on her face. She wipes them away and tries to sit up, only to fall back as her entire body protests. “Oww,” she groans.

“Oh, alive are we?” Kite asks.

Yuma looks to the side—Kite is at a computer, tapping away. She looks down at herself—she’s in some kind of hospital-type bed. She looks around—this is Kite’s lair.

“When did we get here?” Yuma asks. “Where is everyone? What happened to the little girl?”

“What girl?” Kite asks. “As for your other questions, about two hours ago and I imagine some of them are at the top of the tower, coordinating some kind of battle strategies. Chris and Thomas are with Ryoga, examining that crest of his. He said it and your Key did some mumbo-jumbo that allowed you to see into each other’s heads. Maybe that’s where you got the little girl from.”

“Why aren’t you with them?” Yuma asks. “Is it wise to let Ryoga be with Thomas? Doesn’t he still want to kill that guy?”

“We have bigger things to worry about than Ryoga’s homicidal feelings towards Thomas. As for why I’m here, I’m gravely injured from Heartland’s duel. Like I can’t handle whatever Barian bullcrap he threw at me,” She can hear him rolling his eyes at that one. “Plus someone has to keep an eye on you.”

“What about the other Barians?” Yuma asks.

“Don’t know,” Kite says. “They’re off the radar.”

“Where’s Astral?”

“Helping with the battle plans, apparently he isn’t connected to the Key like he once was.”

Yuma’s head feels like it’s spinning. “This is a lot to take in,” she says.

“Tell me about it,” Kite says. He hasn’t once looked away from his screen.

“What are you working on?” Yuma asks. “It can’t be battle strategies, since you’re not with that team.”

“Nothing important at the moment,” Kite says.

“Oh what a lie,” Yuma fires back, and Kite actually smiles. “Saw that,” she says. “So try again, what is it?”

“How about…none of your business,” Kite says.

“Am I going to punch you in the face for it?” Yuma asks, “Because if I am, you should tell me now while I’m not at full strength.”

“Please,” Kite scoffs, “You punched me in the face once before and it barely hurt. You think I’m scared of facing you at full strength?”

Yuma laughs and it hurts, but she doesn’t really mind. This is…probably the first conversation she’s had with Kite where it’s just the two of them. It hits her then that she’s barely spent any time with him, but she cares about him very much. At the same time, she hardly knows him. Sure she knows he would do anything for his brother, and he’s kind of a jerk, and he has a huge ego, but he’s witty, smart, up for an adventure, willing to accept the unbelievable, and he wants the people he cares about to be happy. He’s trying to work things out with his dad for Hart’s sake, and after all the shit his dad put him through, it’s just about the least selfish thing he could probably do.

“Hey, Kite?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t talk about it with you, before I kissed you.”

That finally gets Kite to look up from his computer. “Do we have to do this now?” He asks awkwardly. “The world is ending, you know.”

“All the more reason to talk about it now,” Yuma says, “ So we can go out without anything unsaid, just in case. I talked to Astral and Ryoga, before I kissed them,” she continues, “So they would know what it meant, to me, and what we would want from it. So I’m sorry I didn’t with you. At the time it just seemed like the only thing I could do. Because I know you built that teleporter for me. I know that no matter what Chris said, you went into it knowing you were going to fill me in on the plan as soon as you could. And that means a lot, that you went that far for me. I owe you, big time.”

“No you don’t,” Kite says. “I was the one who owed you. And this…doesn’t even begin to pay you back for it.”

“Kite…”

“Let me finish,” he says. “You’re the one who wants us to go out without anything unsaid, right?”

Is he blushing?? Yuma bites down on the inside of her cheek so she won’t gasp.

“I know I didn’t give you any reason to like me, or trust me, when we first met. But the fact that you still wanted to help Hart, and you were willing to work with me to do it…all that stuff you did in the WDC, you did it without a second thought. I thought you were being high and mighty, like…trying to get me indebted to you, at first. I was so wrong, I can’t believe I ever thought of you like that.” He gives her a sharp look. “And it irritates me to no end, even now. You really threw yourself into that whole mess with Faker and Tron and even Astral without really thinking through the consequences to yourself, didn’t you? I thought you had no sense of self-preservation. That, I was right about. I don’t know why you…you give yourself away like that. It’s going to actually get you killed one day, your need to help others. You nearly died like, three times just in the last 24 hours.”

“Are you still flirting with me?” Yuma asks.

“Yeah, and don’t even get me started on how you respond to stress,” Kite sighs. He gets up and walks over. He sits on the edge of Yuma’s bed. “You are infuriating,” he says. “And yet, for some reason I like having you around. I want to be there when you finally stop saving the world and get back to being…just Yuma. If you have to bring peace to the whole universe for that to happen, I’ll help you with that. And maybe after that we can, I don’t know, talk?”

“Talk,” Yuma repeats with a smile. “Like friends?”

“At least at first,” Kite says. “No matter how much of a child you insist you are not, the fact remains that you are fourteen and dating two people, and I’m eighteen and I’ve got stuff to work through. So maybe when you get a little older and settled into your current relationships, and I get my issues resolved, we can revisit kissing.”

“Would the dating two people thing be a deal breaker for you?” Yuma asks him.

“After everything else? Hell no,” Kite says. “And for the record, I’m not upset at you for kissing me.”

Yuma lets out a sigh of relief. She feels like she can finally relax, and she realizes then just how tired she really is. She tries to hide that as she reaches for Kite’s hand. He takes it and squeezes it gently. He’s smiling.

“I wish you would smile more,” Yuma says. “It changes your whole face. Not that you’re any less infuriatingly handsome when you’re not smiling. You know the first night I saw you, when I screamed at you and stopped, all I could think was that you were so hot.”

Kite snorts. “I want you to know that I had tennis elbow after that duel, because you yanked my arm back and forth.”

“You anchored my arm to yours,” Yuma retorts, barely managing to get it out before she yawns.

“Go to sleep,” Kite says. “You’ve had a long day, and you’re going to need your wits about you.”

It has been a long day. She just got back from Astral world, Ryoga and Rio are Barians, and she likes Kite a lot more than she set out to. “Don’t do anything stupid while I’m asleep,” Yuma mutters as she closes her eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> BOOM SHAKALAKA


End file.
